Iran Sets $12 Billion Payment and Sanctions Relief to Reopen Hormuz

Tehran's formal conditions, delivered through intermediaries, establish the first documented price for restoring transit through a waterway that carries roughly one-fifth of global oil trade.

Iran has presented the United States with a written set of conditions under which it would reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days, according to Al Bawaba, citing Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. The central demands are a $12 billion payment and the removal of US sanctions on Iranian oil exports. Araghchi confirmed the proposal was transmitted through intermediaries rather than through direct diplomatic contact.

The Strait of Hormuz is the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman connecting the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman. The US Energy Information Administration has previously assessed that roughly 20 percent of global petroleum liquids transit the strait annually, making it one of the most consequential chokepoints in world energy markets.

Araghchi told The New York Times that the conditions were non-negotiable as a starting point but that Tehran remained open to broader negotiations once the baseline terms were accepted, according to Al Bawaba's report. The specific channel of intermediaries used was not identified in available reporting. What channel or government served as the conduit would help clarify how close the two governments are to a formal exchange.

Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian addressed the United Nations General Assembly on September 25, 2026, calling for a lasting diplomatic solution while referencing what Press TV described as seven months of battlefield gains, according to Press TV. Pezeshkian did not detail the Hormuz conditions in his public remarks, though the speech reinforced Tehran's dual posture of military confidence and stated diplomatic availability.

The $12 billion figure appears to reference frozen Iranian assets held in foreign accounts, a category that has featured in prior US-Iran negotiations. The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was accompanied by the release of approximately $100 billion in previously frozen assets, according to the US Treasury Department's public accounting at the time. The current demand is smaller in nominal terms but arrives in a geopolitical context that US officials have described as significantly more adversarial.

The sanctions component of the demand targets the primary mechanism by which Washington has constrained Iranian oil revenues since the Trump administration's 2018 withdrawal from the nuclear agreement. US sanctions limit the countries and financial institutions that can legally purchase Iranian crude, reducing export volumes and suppressing the price Tehran can command on available sales. Removing those sanctions would require either an executive waiver or legislative action, both of which carry domestic political costs in the United States.

Separately, pressure on regional energy infrastructure is rising from a different direction. France announced plans to deploy troops, radar equipment, and air defense systems to Yanbu, Saudi Arabia's major oil export port on the Red Sea, in response to Yemeni military operations against Saudi targets, according to Press TV. That deployment, announced by President Emmanuel Macron, adds a European military presence to a corridor already under stress from the Hormuz standoff to the east.

The convergence of a closed or restricted Hormuz strait and active threats to Red Sea port infrastructure represents simultaneous pressure on the two primary exit routes for Gulf energy exports. The full commercial impact depends on the duration of each disruption and on whether tanker traffic reroutes around the Cape of Good Hope, adding roughly two weeks to voyage times between the Gulf and European markets.

No formal US government response to Iran's Hormuz conditions had been reported in available sources as of publication. The White House and State Department's positions on the intermediary proposal remain unknown. A public statement from either government would be the next indicator of whether the proposal advances toward negotiation or is set aside.

The Hormuz conditions arrive as US-China relations are in a period of renewed engagement. A White House state dinner for President Xi Jinping took place this week, with technology sector executives in attendance and both leaders invoking historical alliance language, as reported by the South China Morning Post and covered previously by The Congressional Times. Whether Beijing, which purchases significant volumes of Iranian oil, has played any role in the intermediary process has not been reported in available sources.